Landing on Revis

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Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit.

~ Edward Abbey

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This is just a drive-by posting...

... and I will return with more about my current situation but wanted folks to know that yes, I'm still kicking.

I'm back in Califas after spending 97% of the last 30 years living in Oregon. I had no idea when I left CA in 1990 what a trip that would be. And then some!

I am currently situated 300' below the 2080' summit of Revis Mtn in the Sierra Nevada foothills. I hike the mountain nearly daily and have fallen deeply in love with this little island of wild California. No cows. No off-road vehicles.

I must say that hiking California's foothills without cows is a rare experience but the thrill of no cow pies and the attendant hordes of flies makes this spot a true delight. And, as I've declared more than once while watching the day's light play across the trees and rocks, this place is crazy beautiful.

Well, here, have a look for yourself:

 

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And please, have a visit to my photo art for sale over at Fine Art America and maybe you'll be inspired to spend a few bucks and help support this old phart in his dotage.

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Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

~ Albert Einstein

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saying goodbye...

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Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

- Will Rogers

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Well, my run here at the old farmhouse has come to an end.

I've live here for 13 years, longer than anywhere I've ever lived. Unfortunately I ran into some medical issues last summer, both to me and one of the dogs.

Then my roommate lost her ability to pay her share of rent last fall after she lost her job. She stayed on thru to the spring of this year with her newborn son. Because she had no work I was left with keeping the utilities paid, plus all my other bills (including the medical bills) and I was lucky I was even able to afford food.

As a single dad I raised my 2 kids here. There was no way I was putting a new mom and her newborn baby out on the street. Plus she was a great roommate, a friend and I loved her and her baby like family.

When I was raising my children here my daughter was always on me about getting food stamps. Call me stubborn, call me a masochist, heck! call me a hard-headed Swede. But I was an able bodied male and damned if I was going to let Uncle Sugar get into my life any more than it already was.

So it is that at 67teen I find myself once again with major life decisions to make and new changes - in whatever form they take - to deal with.

If you be of a mind to help I've started a self-fundraiser to help pay off my medical bills and to maybe help my transition into the next phase of my life.

Ideally... I will find someone, an organization or an individual, somewhere, that will find me the perfect fit for their need of a resident caretaker.

It's my perfect job. I do carpentry, plumbing, household electric, painting, gardening and I'm a photographer and writer. I've been a medical amateur professional for 2 decades as an events medicine volunteer. I did wildlife rehab in the early '80s. I am a published writer. I am a  published photographer.

And I love the land.

Living in nature is where I need to be. I've lived off the grid. I love isolation and quiet.

I've spent 60 years being squished and squeezed by the forces of conformance. But I DON'T fit. Sure I've muddled through, going where the universal winds of whim carry me, but "civilization" is all just too much.

I am not a consumer. I am a warrior for my people (friends, family and community) and for the earth's living beings without a voice. I am a teacher, perhaps even a bit of a healer. I am an artist.

I am an elder and there is still strength in my wings. I know I shall fly but where will I land?

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“It’s clearly a crisis of two things: of consciousness and conditioning. We have the technological power, the engineering skills to save our planet, to cure disease, to feed the hungry, to end war; But we lack the intellectual vision, the ability to change our minds. We must decondition ourselves from 10,000 years of bad behavior. And, it’s not easy.”

- Terence McKenna

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faces

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Learn the sweet magic of a cheerful face.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

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for the couch:

Pete and Allan

Allan and Jim (NCN )(had to do this one all Nor'westy like...)

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there once was a life I sailed the wwwebly seas

on ocean often calm
but sometimes not
with a motley crew
all wisey-kind in cleverish ways
we fought, often for days
against them blarney types
or, against each other
all-friendly-like o' course
and we'd gather
from places far, far away
strangers some
but then not for long
for a brisk skirmish
made friends of those
who stand side by side

those days I sometimes miss
when asses we'd kick
when Malcolm would cry out
"heave to boys!"
and Nemo would point
"thar she blows!"
characters all
would stand as one
(well, maybe 1 1/2...)
dark and bb, ddc
hope and all
I salute yer raggedy
piratical anarchal arses

thanks for the memories
Huzzah!

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Christmas 2015

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You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness.

- Terence McKenna

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For me, over these 6 decades come and gone, this season is a triad of "holidays" (holy days). Dec 21 is both the day I mark as the Winter Solstice and my mother Vivian's (RIP) birthday.

Of course these days my mom's birthday is kinda sad as I do miss her, very much. She was such a good soul and having to raise me along with my 2 1/2 siblings must have been quite the challenge.

The Winter's Solstice... aaah... this is me. Long ago I slipped into the life stream of the natural world. And that world is one that exists not just as material but as the core of my heart, mind and soul. 

I love the earth. More than my mom, my family or my friends. 

Nature is all. It is all we have and all that we have has come from her. The life here on our planet is absolutely connected to life everywhere. There is no other, there is but here. Infinite life expands in all directions - macro and micro.

But Christmas... sigh... 

... Christmas was great as a kid. Innocence makes so much believable. But Christmas is like the Kachinas. It dances into the village costumed and caricaturized. Dancing a lie, a myth but telling the story. Only when an individual is old enough are they made aware that the Kachinas are their relatives, their neighbors. The masks come off.

For me the mask came off Christmas when I started doing sweatlodge and traveling with the plant medicines, the entheogenic spirits. 

I can't in good conscience share the "joy" of giving. Our consumption will be our doom. It's as simple as that. While many of my friends understand this, the majority of modern humans are clueless. For 40 years I've been at odds with the society around me. Heck, I've flung my body at that wall more than once.

And it's never been easy! I mean I sure don't want to be the Grinch. I don't want to spoil anyone's enjoyment, especially the children's. So my kids were raised celebrating Christmas. But once we moved into the farm celebrating Christmas became an enigma. It was mid-winter, energy bills are high, I'm raising 2 kids (teenagers!) by myself and I don't believe in it. 

Luckily (?) I've never had an issue being a bit different. It was tough maturing into it but the same process was always involved - "how many sheep does it hold?" Because of me being me fighting to save an old growth forest or being a hippie working for an environmental organization in the middle of conservative ranching country or driving a truck with pot leaves painted all over it when pot was still illegal (ughhh, gross!) takes a certain amount of crazy. The rewards tho'... that's the kind.

AND driving that truck (20' flatbed loaded with tons of lumber) for almost 5 years with no violations shows a certain level of skill. 

I'm not trying to change anybody. I do work hard on occasion trying to change minds - and hearts - but mostly I want to enjoy this lifetime's sojourn on a beautiful planet. A planet I call home and mother.

Merry Christmas!

(self portrait)

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Please, if you like this, visit my other blogs as well:

AE, photographer (my photography)

Good Dog (drug war) (drug war)

Eugene Emeralds at Civic Stadium (Eugene Emeralds baseball)

for those who enjoy my work with Courtney

My Oregon Muse (adult content)

and my Facebook

My photography on FB

Thanks for visiting, feel free to leave me a comment or share with your friends.

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Psychedelics are illegal not because a loving government is concerned that you may jump out of a third story window. Psychedelics are illegal because they dissolve opinion structures and culturally laid down models of behaviour and information processing. They open you up to the possibility that everything you know is wrong.

- Terence McKenna

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flying Persians... and broken justice...

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“No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.”

- Robert A. Heinlein
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... and on that note (drumroll please)... I give you...

The UFO identified!

We've built a flying saucer, boasts Iran

an aircraft created by scientists in Iran is, they claim, the world’s first flying saucer.

Well heck... we know the Germans built the first flying disc.

Anyway... I find myself in a bit of a funk. As I witness the ongoing tragedy in Japan I really wonder - "why?" Why are we so hell bent on creating industral waste that will be around for a thousand generations? What is this rush to electrify the world?

What I fear is that as we of the "modern world" continue our cultural downhill slide all this electrical generation will not win us a more perfect world. I mean what is the end goal? Are we looking seven generations ahead as many indigenous cultures suggest we should?

Or are we not looking past the greedy little noses on our faces? Has self gratification become the accepted global norm? Do we all desire that latest celphone/camera/video/music player/TV/microwave that much that we'll sell out the last forest? We're willing to sacrifice clean air and pristine waters for cheap plastic googaws? Really? Really...? And people accuse pot heads of "escaping reality!" Hah...


How sad.

I was a kid at a time when even in the rapidly growing LA basin there was still lots of open land for kids to dink around in. For me there were still enough bugs and lizards and frogs and salamanders and cool hidden spots to satisfy my need for natural contact and for learning about my earth.

I can look back and see that everything that turned my path as I grew to be who I am now, all those little nudges that drew my attention to something... it was always nature that could hook me intellectually and spiritually.

There is an impoverishment of spirit that I see that scares the crap out of me. 18 men and boy gang rape an 11 year old girl in Cleveland, Texas (near Houston) and people are defending the rapists. Even a Republican Florida legislator - a woman - is not defending the girl but taking her to task instead, for dressing and looking "older than her age."

Now in my mind this... assault... by a group of men and boys on an eleven year old girl... I don't care if she took off al her clothes and begged for sex, she's eleven yeas old. And the event is recorded, that's how they got caught. This makes the Kitty Genovese case look downright civilized.

I mean come on America, what the hell? If the gang rape is recorded can any of the males involved be acquitted? And then... the young man in Arizona, Jared Loughner, is there a doubt he shot those people? I understand we have a system of criminal justice, but I also understand it is broken. Just to make that point consider that when I was an energetic kid I loved being in and from the USA. Heck, I grew up watching any military show on TV. Victory At Sea, Combat, Hogan's Heroes... it didn't matter, if it was about the war we watched it. My dad was a WWII combat vet and proud of it but by no means boastful. Dad was a quiet guy... but I begin to digress. Our criminal justice system...

... is broken. My pointing to old TV war shows is that part of the whole patriotic thing was that we were really known as the Land of the Free and we did feel proud and we boasted about it. But we weren't talking smack, we just were on a roll after WWII. My dad's generation settled down and built homes, tracts and tracts of homes and raised families, lots and lots of families... we had a ready and willing work force and Leave it to Beaver and The Nelsons... and segregation and and and... we had beaten Hitler and blasted the Japanese into submission with the use of atomic weapons. We built schools and parks and could afford to put gas in our cars. And we were the Sweet Land of Liberty.

But now... not so much. Now we are the Land of the Most Incarcerated. Now we have elected leaders demonizing educators, our children's teachers. Class sizes grow and kids too often have their real educational needs ignored and they end up getting shuffled thru the system and graduating (if that) with an 8th - 10th grade reading level. Which is all so weird because the single most prominent common denominator shared by the inmates in an all of our jails, prisons and penitentiaries is that they are illiterate. Education is the key to keeping people out of jail. And education should be one of the keys for prisoners to get out of jail.

We need our teachers and we need to teach our children, all of our children, now. We need to find our way at least as far back as to where "the Land of the Free" had a ring of truth to it. We fool ourselves if we think USA #1! is better sloganeering than the tried and true, best selling the Land of the Free. We need to prosecute the men and women on Wall Street who stole trillions of our dollars.

Jared Loughner is guilty. He didn't craft a crime, no CSI team is needed to determine that... he opened fire in broad daylight and killed and wounded innocent people. Those men and boys in Texas that raped that little girl, they were recorded committing their heinous crimes. Such obvious criminality does not deserve a chance to get off the hook. And lord help us, may they never have children.

meanwhile our government and those elected to lead it are squandering our last vestiges of credibility. This country isn't about corporations and business (even tho' I do believe Lewis and Clark can now be seen as the first scouts for 7-11 locations). This land is, as the song goes, my land, this land is your land. Us, we, the people share a common heritage forged in blood and guaranteed to us in our Bill of Rights.

Every day we grow less free, we are losing the middle class as the economic disparity between the wealthy and the rest of us grows ever wider. Our pockets are being picked clean... and shocking to me - Disneyland turned out to be a fantasy after all. The promises of a marvelous future full of flying cars and fully automated homes for us all hasn't quite panned out as predicted in TomorrowLand.

Yeah we have some pretty fancy gadgets but those are just that, fancy gadgets that bring us no closer to ending the cruelties of war and starvation, no closer to educating the masses of under educated, they won't warm a home in the winter and they won't bring us a better understanding of the tenuous situation in which we now find ourselves.

Shun those that divide and stand against those seeking to profit from the rhetoric of division. Support those who strive for inclusion and seek cooperation. Follow the voices of reason, look for consensus and try to see through the charade of slick political and corporate charlatans. Get private money out of our elections and the horde of lobbyists out of Washington DC.

So ever onward dear friends, towards protecting freedom and individual liberty and a dismantling of the drug war-prison-military-industrial complex...
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“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests”

- Thomas Paine

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Giving thanks...

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“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.”

- Albert Schweitzer
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A couple of older offerings that fit the day for me and my place in life's web...

The Song, An ancient song transforms a hike into a vision quest, by Sharif Abdullah

and this offering of thanks, from Chief Jake Swamp (the best version of this is found on Joanne Shenandoah's wonderful album, Covenant):

"We are brought together on this beautiful day. We now bring our minds together as if we became one person as we give thanks to our health and well-being. We look around the world and we see the many different gifts that have been given by the Great Spirit.

"We give thanks to the Earth, our Mother, and greet her this morning, for always taking care of us.

"We give thanks to all the bodies of water, the water that is responsible for quenching our thirst.

"When we see all the grasses and the beauty of the greenery they present to us, we thank them for what they do in this life. We give thanks to all the medicinal herbs that have been planted that take away diseases and sicknesses.

"We give thanks to all the foods that come from the ground.

"We give thanks to all the fish that live in the waters, and all the insects.

"We give thanks to all the animal relatives, especially the Deer, their leader. We give thanks to them for cleaning up the forest and keeping it clean.

"We give thanks to all the trees around the world, for each and every day we use their energy. We must always honor and remember how helpful they are to our lives.

"We pay attention to the birds who sing their beautiful songs, including their leader, the Eagle. Each time when we are taken into loneliness, we only need to listen to their beautiful songs, and we are comforted in our minds and be well again.

"We take our minds to the Four Directions where the Four Winds come from, and we give thanks for the air that we breathe.

"We give thanks to our oldest Grandfathers who come from the West, the Thunder Beings. As they rumble across the sky, we know that the waters of the world will be replenished.

"We give thanks to our oldest Brother, the Sun, for he is the one who shines his light that we may see creation clearly, giving his warmth so that everything can grow.

"We thank our oldest Grandmother, the Moon, as she continues to hold hands with the Earth and all the females of the world who are responsible for bringing forth new life. She is in charge of the movements of all the waters of the world, including the waters within us.

"We give thanks to her helpers, all the Stars, who bring the dew to help the plant life when we have dry seasons. Although we have lost much knowledge of the stars, just to look at their beauty and the brilliance of how they are scattered across the sky brings us comfort enough to say thankyou for what they do.

"We give thanks to the Four Sacred Beings who were assigned to watch over the human family. We depend upon them whenever we are entering into dangerous places. They intervene on our behalf and lead us away from danger.

"And now we have arrived at a special place beyond the heavens where the Great Spirit lives. We say thank you for what was presented to the People in this world, the gift of life; we know where it came from. Although we do not know the face of the Creator, we can feel its presence within every living thing, including within us. And so we give thanks for this great mystery to the Creator of all things that we enjoy every day.

"This morning we have opened our gathering with thankfulness for being brought together. Yawehkowa. Thank you."

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2011 Calendar sale... is over... but the calendars are still for sale!

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“The Gods cannot help those who do not seize opportunities”

- Chinese Proverb
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The sale ended Nov. 14, but I'll sure post it here when they have another one! But the way RedBubble has the calendars formatted you can have it start at whatever month you want and it will still be a 12 month calendar... so if you purchase one in April, you can have the calendar start in May. Pretty cool...

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Seeing how I have 4 to choose from (counting last year's, which is updated to 2011 dates) and naturally, I'm gonna tell you they're all beautiful and loaded with my best Oregon nature images:



‘Allan Erickson's Oregon ’




‘Oregon - clouds, sky and light - Allan Erickson’




‘Oregon waters...’

and my newest (my fave by the way...)




‘Cannabis Beauty - Allan Erickson’

and while I'm pitching... remember that there are a lot of folks like me who are artists and every time someone buys one of their/our works it is an acknowledgement we all savor...

(note that sale ends on November 14th)

Thanks folks, for stopping by and visiting my humble corner of the wwweb... anything else is old pie and melted ice cream!

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“Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.”

- Joseph Campbell

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2011 Oregon Calendars!

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“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind.”

- Leonardo da Vinci
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I needed some time away from the blog. I hope you all can grant a bit of slack for my prolonged absence. Things being what they are I spent my summer working my ass off trying to play catch-up. Hah... so much for that idea!

I'm currently working on some photos and a blog about a road trip out to Oregon's wonderful Warner Basin. I won't be too long in getting that posted. Promise...

So as you can see from the title of today's blogpost I've put together a couple of new calendars for the coming year. They're running right around $25, just like last year's. I'm extremely happy with them and hope to put together one or two more here in the next cuppla weeks.

Both calendars are Oregon themed, naturally...

Allan Erickson's 2011 Oregon Calendars



Remember, when you purchase items like this you keep alive artists' dreams. So always when you can support the artists, support the arts.

And... as always I appreciate you dropping in for a cup o' joe and a donut. Until next time, Kay sh'nuk sh'mah.

Oh... as a bit of a tease, here's the shot I (unconsciously) went out to the desert to get:



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“Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art”

- Leonardo da Vinci

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that photo thing again...

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“Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping... waiting... and though unwanted... unbidden... it will stir... open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us... guides us... passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have? Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love... the clarity of hatred... and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we'd know some kind of peace... but we would be hollow... Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we'd be truly dead.”

- Joss Whedon
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A fine topic for some philosophical cud chewing...

Think about it...

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I'm posting photos today. I feel I've been neglectful of y'all, image wise. These are (almost) all recent:


Central California Stuntmen Assoc, early '80s (PlusX film, scanned to digital)


Guadalupe Dunes (California), winter solstice sunset, late '80s (Kodachrome 64, scanned to digital)


Guad Dunes, early morning, winter solstice, late '80s (Kodachrome 64, scanned to digital)


Los Lonely Boys going acoustic, at the McDonald Theater, (2010)

If you aren't familiar with Los Lonely Boys I highly recommend giving 'em a listen. 3 brothers from Texas, they play topnotch Rock and Roll, Texican style!


The Hallelujah Chorus, Willamette HS combined choirs and bands, conducted by Bart Ellis, Dec 2009


Michael Franti at the McDonald Theater, 2009


My son Alex, on bass, w/ Naked in Alaska, Peterson Barn Rec Center, Eugene, OR, 2009


Redtail hawk landing in storm, here at my home, Eugene, OR


Flamboyant tulip, my garden, shot the other day


Magnolia bloom, my garden, 2 weeks ago


Stonefield Beach, south of Cape Perpetua, Oregon, Feb 2010 full moon (extreme high and low tides)

Now I know a lot of you reaaallllly like my photography, and I definitely appreciate your appreciation....

... but artists have to eat.

All of the above images and about 200 more are available for purchase at my RedBubble Gallery. And they don't have to be purchased as framed prints for $120 or so... they can be bought as greeting cards, post cards, laminated prints, mounted or matted prints (you buy or use your own frames)...

So here... these are a few examples of what my photos look like in different formats:





Cards come in 4x6 size for $2.99, 5x7 for $4.50, or as 4x6 postcards for under $2.50. RedBubble also provides quantity discounts - 20% off for 4, 30% off for 8, or 40% off for 16

Laminated prints (photo size approx 8"x12") come on white or black background:





and are priced under $22.00
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From Jay Leno: "our teenagers are so fat today... that teen boys are happy to get in their own pants..."

And I post that not as a dig at overweight folks but on our society (and the fact it's funny!)... we have our priorities a tad askew. Our personal health is our personal responsibility, just as the health of our government is the responsibility of "we, the people." Our gluttony may be fatal on both points.

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“Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.”

- William Shakespeare

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